I don't wrap 'em at all -- I make my drummer untangle 'em at the next gig.

Other (hey, there could be an other).

At practice yesterday, my singer made a comment about how tightly I wind my cables when I put them away. He said that "they" recommend that you wrap them in big loops, as opposed to smaller, tighter ones. Let's say I have an 18' cable -- when I am done wrapping it, the coil will be about 5 inches in diameter. I wrap them "tight" because they are easier to secure with a cord lock and they are less likely to tangle with themselves and other cords. My [idiot] guitarist says that wrapping them like I do breaks the smaller wires inside. I say, as long as I wrap 'em the right way (you know, the way a cord "naturally" wants to wrap), what difference does it make? What's your opinion?

My signature notwithstanding, the tighter you wrap the cord, the more stress you put on the sheilding, whether it's spiral wrap, braid, or foil. The sheilding may unravel and bunch up under the insulation. Foil shielding is especially susceptible to damage from tight winding, and may break. My mic cords and instrument cords get wound at about a 10- to 12-inch diameter. Speaker cords can be wound tighter if they're unshielded 2-conductor cables.

I was told by a guitar player (they're not all idiots) a long time ago that tight wrapping breaks down the shielding and conductors. SO I went with big loops (18-20") and I have cables that I have used for 10-12 years and they all work fine. The guys that help us with sound have a nasty habit of wrapping up mic cables very tightly. We have to buy a few new mic cables every year and have a whole box of dead ones.

Another thing nice about big loops is that the cable gets trained to lay on the stage flat. If you wrap them up tight, they tend to bunch up on stage and make it easier to trip over.

I use only 30' cables. I never ever wrap them. I lay them out completely straight, without one wrinkle. Then, I place them into a specially made hardshell case, (32' long), that I carry around. It's awkward, but gosh darnit, that's what I do.

jazzbo, kinda like them straight strings that they used to market back in the early or mid 1970's, eh?

I wonder why that never caught on. You could go into a music store, buy a package of bass strings, and they would easily fit in a coat pocket, or briefcase, or bass case, gigbag, etc. But wouldn't it be much cooler to have the strings in a package 38" long, that wouldn't fit in anything?

Fair to middling. Usually whatever the space requirement is. If it's my gig bag, then fairly tight. If it's in a box or something, then loose. I was not aware of the implications of cable winding. Maybe I'll be more carefull form now on.